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You Goin’a Fish or Work?

By Mike JohnsonEx-Commercial Diving Consultant

Several years ago, I was working off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on a semi-submersible drilling rig, searching for new productive oil deposits. This was a relativelynew rig with a beautiful saturation diving system aboard, capable of making dives to adepth of 1500 feet and remaining there for days, weeks, or even months to completeneeded repairs. The diving system was designed to have its two living chambers and oneutility chamber remain pressurized and resting on the deck of the drilling rig while thesealed diving bell, with divers inside, could be disconnected and lowered to the sea floor on the end of a large wire.The weather was perfect this particular day, you could see forever in all directions,nothing but blue water and blue sky, decorated at intervals with white caps and clouds.There was a light warm breeze blowing, much to my appreciation, as I was working ondeck doing some life support system maintenance to the diving system, when the “ToolPusher” (Boss) approached with a problem and asked me to make a dive on the BOP(blow out preventer stack). The Tool Pusher needed to operate hydraulic control rams onthe BOP as it rested on the sea bed, at the end of the drill casing. A hydraulic hose had broken and must be repaired before the rams could operate and drilling operationsresumed.I notified the rest of the diving crew and we immediately began pressurizing the divingsystem living chambers to the working depth. I was to make the dive with my partner “Sandy” who joined me in preparing the diving bell for deployment.Sandy was a native of the UK who had spent a good deal of time working in SouthAfrica after being discharged from Her Majesty’s Royal Navy. He had a massive senseof humor and was slow to irritation, good qualities for being shut away inside asaturation diving system, living and working for a week. Aside from being a good hand,if things got too boring you could always read Sandy, he was covered with tattoos headto foot. He said getting tattoos had started as a hobby while he was in the service. I think it probably coincided with other hobbies, like late nights and hanging out in pubs.We were ready to deploy in good time, all the crew gathered for a pre-dive conferenceand off we went. Sandy and I entered the diving bell as it rested on deck with its bottomhatch open. We secured the hatches, pressurized the bell to working depth as we sat ondeck (pressurizing caused the bell to heat up) then braced for interface (passing from air into the water) as the bell was lifted from deck and lowered into the water, for descent tothe ocean floor. This was all pretty routine, and as soon as we were submerged the belltemperature began to cool. It took about half an hour to lower the bell and get us into proper working position, with the bell suspended at the end of its lifting wire andstationed within 10 feet of the BOP.

Are You Goin’a Fish or Work?Page 1of 4, MD Johnson, 10/2/2009

The bell was getting really cold at this depth (510 feet) and the breathing atmosphere, amix of helium and oxygen, increased body heat loss. We turned on the bell heaters,opened the bottom hatch to allow exit and entry, then hooked hot water hoses to our diving suits and began to warm up as the warm water flowed and filled the suits like bighot water bottles.Sandy was to lock out of the bell first. We were in communication with the divingsupervisor and deck handling stations through a round robin system. This meant thateverything said by the diver when outside the bell could be heard by the supervisor, themen on deck, and the bell tender. Everybody hears everything through two-way openspeakers. It is a good way to keep informed and maintain smooth operations. It is also asource of entertainment and sea stories when things get interesting.After putting on his diving helmet and doing a pre-dive check, Sandy dropped throughthe bottom hatch into the open sea below. He had just disappeared from view when therecame a scream of terror and incoherent babbling over the communication system asSandy’s head popped back into the bottom bell hatch, still ranting about this huge fish hehad met outside. The close quarters made it difficult for him to get his arms above hishead as he exclaimed “it’s this big” throwing his arms wide until they could spread nofurther being stopped by the bell walls on either side. As I made comment that a fish thatsize was not a big deal, he returned, “that’s the distance between its eyes, this thingdwarfs a mini-van”.By this time we were getting flack from topside, “stop playing and get to work”, so like agood bell tender, I put my foot on Sandy’s diving helmet and began to encourage hisreturn to the business at hand by standing on his head and forcing him to drop back outside. The fish was still there, a huge grouper. It didn’t appear aggressive andfollowed Sandy about with a childlike inquisitiveness. It wanted to see exactly what wasgoing on.Sandy finished removing the damaged BOP hydraulic control hose and returned to the bell, his friend followed. No sooner had the behemoth been left alone than he began toram his weight into the body of the diving bell causing quite a jolt to us passengersinside. He repeated his message 3 or 4 times. This time it was Sandy’s turn to beencouraging. He showed absolutely no sympathy for my apprehension as he handed methe diving helmet and said, “my half is done, partner.” Going outside to reason with agiant rampaging fish was not something on my top ten list of fun things to do, but beinga good bell tender, Sandy slapped the helmet on my head and began insistently stuffingme through the bell hatch.With all pre-dive safety checks complete, I dropped through the hatch into the crystalclear water. Although it was dark at this depth, where no light could filter down fromthe sun, there were plenty of lights mounted on the bell and on the camera frameconnected to the BOP guide wires. I always find it an exhilarating experience to makethat jump, and this time there was an added bonus… there, just in front of me, was the biggest fish I had ever seen. Sandy had made no exaggeration when he compared a mini-van to its size. As soon as it saw me the ramming of the bell stopped and it came close to

Are You Goin’a Fish or Work?Page 2of 4, MD Johnson, 10/2/2009

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Story, Part I, Fishtale, You Goin'a Fish or Work

While working in the oil fields, commercial saturation divers meet Fish-Kong in crystal blue waters, deep off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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Category:	Creative Writing > Short Stories
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Upload Date:	10/02/2009
Copyright:	Attribution Non-commercial
Tags:	commercial underwater diving big fish commercial underwater diving big fish (fewer)